Wanted: One hot car for one hot date
18- year- old hopes someone will help make his prom dreams come true
Quinn Lessing is 18, and a Grade 12 student at Coquitlam’s Pinetree secondary school. He plans on going into engineering after he graduates.
But first, he has a prom to go to.
It’s at the Bayshore Hotel on June 1.
As do many kids his age, Quinn has a thing for cars. He likes them. He once had a little 1994 Honda Civic SI with a nice sound system, but, he said, he had to sell it.
“I need the money for university.”
This left him without a ride for prom, not that he would want to go to his prom in a 1994 Honda Civic, anyway. He wants a ride to go to prom in — a fine machine that matches the momentousness of the occasion.
“What I’m hoping for,” he said, “is a car that turns heads.”
His parents’ cars are a 2008 Jeep Wrangler and a 2009 Nissan Altima — hardly the stuff that make the heart beat faster. So that was out. And he didn’t want to go in on renting a limo because, he said, everybody was doing it. He wanted something different.
On Tuesday, Quinn — who has his N licence, and has never had an accident or even so much as a parking ticket — took out the following ad on Craigslist. It read: “WANTED: Car for grad “I want to use an exotic/ classic/ unique car for one day on my grad. I am willing to demonstrate my driving skills before hand on my own vehicle ( standard or auto), and will keep a video of the entire drive to ensure that I have not been speeding or recklessly driving. “COMPENSATION: “I’ll fill up your tank and pay you some money depending on the car, however please do not ask a $ 5000 deposit and me to take over your lease as I’m a student, not a loaded 25 year old looking for a hot ride.
“This has always been my dream to roll in a beautiful car with a hot girl by my side to grad, give a guy a hand.”
He has something in mind like a Mustang Shelby GT500, his dream car, he said. But he’s open to anything that’s a classic.
“It doesn’t have to be a convertible, but I’d love it if it were.
“I honestly do not know ( what the chances are of finding a willing renter). I’m not going to say super- high, but I would think there are a few people in the Lower Mainland who would ( rent a car for a night), who have experienced the same thing I want. If they think back when they came out of high school ... and pulling up to their graduation and having that kind of perfect day when everything went right and everything was just great.”
In terms of payment, he’s thinking in terms of a couple of hundred dollars, depending on the car’s pedigree. He also promises not to drink and drive, speed or, um, do anything else in the car other than drive it.
“If the owner doesn’t trust a young driver,” he said, “I’m willing to take a video of me driving the entire time with the speedometer in view, just so he has that peace of mind that I’m not going to trash his car.”
There is also another detail Quinn has yet to work out:
He doesn’t have a date for the prom yet. He has a couple of girls in mind, he said, but he hasn’t talked to either of them about prom.
“I’m not sure which one I’m going to take yet.”
I said he had better hope that neither of them read this, to which Quinn replied: “No kidding.” But then, that’s the impetuousness of youth, isn’t it?
Always putting the cart before the horse.